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October 16, 2014

guts.

Today we got to see the inner workings of Ruthe's stomach. It was SO. COOL.

We all know that Ruthe's alter ego is the super-villain known as Pukezilla. (She missed the "secret identity" memo.) But the problem with being extraordinary at spitting-up is that her calorie intake drops, she doesn't gain weight, and she develops an aversion to putting food in her mouth.

So after a year of thinking she'd grow out it, and it would get better after her last heart surgery, and trying every trick in the book, I called her doctor and said we needed to figure this out. He agreed, because she actually shouldn't be able to vomit. (They did a procedure called "fundoplication" when she got her g-tube that makes it physically impossible.)

Well, what we learned today is that her stomach function looks fine. Food moves quickly from her stomach to her intestines, and there are no obstructions in her esophagus that are triggering her gag reflex. BUT she does have a very sensitive gag reflex, and her fundo has been loosened so that it no longer does its job. So, when even the tiniest bit of food travels back into her esophagus, she gags, causing more to get pushed up, causing the spit-up. And it started after just 4oz of liquid. Only half of her normal feed. And the doctor pulled 2 of those ounces back out through her g-tube when she started to gag.

The tricky part of what we learned today is that everything is functioning "normally" but that's a problem because Rutge is not normal. Because she has the g-tube, she really needs the fundo to be working. And since she's still going to be on the g-tube for an indefinite period of time, we'll most likely need to have that procedure redone.

So, in summary: Ruthe's scan today went really well! Her results are pretty much normal. But that means she will most likely need to have another surgery.

I hate it when good news is bad news in disguise.

There is a silver-lining though, because now we can try to have this surgery done during the same stay as her palate-repair and I can make a better argument to have them done at Sunrise!!